Windows 11 MSFS limited by main thread- Intel 12th Gen

I upgraded to win11 recently because 12th gen works better with win11. So far windows updates, gpu driver updates and flight sim updates were the one’s that have be done. I do remember initially after upgrading to win11 it was working just fine with the fbw a320 mod. So win11 as a OS itself may not be the issue. Some update within win11, gpu driver or msfs update is the issue is what i suspect at the moment.

Do you suggest anything particular benchmark/test to rule out hardware issues? I have tried cinibench, memtest and 3d mark for gpu. Apart from this is there anything in particular to simulate the conditions of msfs which can rule out hardware issues?

There is a trade-off between the image quality on the monitor and how fast images are displayed. If you want the highest quality image, tune graphics settings for max CPU% and minimum GPU%. If you want the fastest image display, tune graphic settings for max GPU% and minimum CPU%.

My (and others) GPU% is always between 95-100% while my CPU% is between 9-15%. Is my CPU underutilized? Yes. Can FPS be increased using more CPU? No.

In other words, if you want better performance (max FPS from your hardware), max your GPU% and don’t worry about CPU%.

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I7 12700 KF
GTX 1080 ti 11g RAM
Smooth. As. Butter. On maximum settings.

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Have you checked for driver updates for windows 11 for your MainBoard and GPU? those number are so far out it doesnt make sense. Can you show your fps counter sat at an airport and also share a screenshot of your settings? Can you also use hwinfo to monitor your clockspeed? its possible your CPU is downclocking.

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Hello @BlackBag2300 thanks for replying. Windows, Videocard drivers and BIOS are all up to date. I have added a video with the settings and the exact issue i have described. The CPU is not throttling down. Kindly, have a look at MSFS-LowFPS-LoadingScreen
Please note that it takes a very long time to load and also this happens with any aircraft! Also, once in the game smaller GA aircraft may give around 20 fps but just by panning around it drops to <10fps. I highly doubt if this is normal as i have seen plenty of youtube videos with the 747 itself smooth as butter with a similar spec PC.
What could be the cause? Do you think i should reset windows 11? Should i go back to windows 10? For the intel 12 gen processors windows 11 is better due to the better compatible scheduler.

Not sure how much I can help, this one is a doozy to me. My ideas:

  • Where are you located on the planet? Ideally the city and country but country is good enough probably if you don’t want to say.
  • Where is your MSFS online server located (from the main screen)
  • Are you using a VPN with MSFS?
  • Can you open a browser to fast.com and let us know what the typical download and upload speeds are? Might need to click the “Show more info button”

Location: Singapore
MSFS online server: South-East Asia(~40ms ping)
No VPN is being used.
Internet download and upload speeds are >300Mbps

Its not usual thats for sure, If it was me I would probably roll back to Windows 10 and try again.

@CharlesKS3574 are you running on windows 11?

You do realise this is very normal, even many sandboxed games are no different and they usually have a closed environment meaning they can tune to the nth degree. CPU use is aggregated, the more physical cores on your cpu the lower your overall usage will be and trying to push it higher can only do more harm than good. As it is your GPU is not getting the instructions it needs and you need to find out why. Close all other programs/unnecessary background processes and test offline with antivirus disabled.

Thanks for your suggestions. I did try with real time protection turned off in windows security(that is what i use for anti virus). Also closed all unnecessary apps and rolled back to nvidia game ready 497.29 driver. No changes were seen.

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Then if it still doesn’t work offline you really should test with a more recent GPU, it could simply be your 1080 is being overwhelmed with data and thus it doesn’t even get to register as gpu limited.

However first I suggest you try adjusting your PCI-e lane configuration in your bios but remember your settings for when you do eventually upgade the card.

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The GPU i’m sure is good enough to atleast get 50fps with the settings i have shown in the video. I have only upgraded the CPU recently and the os to windows 11. i had the 4770k before and there i used to get around 40fps with most of the aircraft with these settings(the same gpu).
The GTX 1080 is a pcie gen 3 x16 card. What exactly should i change in the bios?

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Don’t forget you have also upgraded your memory to ddr5. I don’t have an asus board so can’t say but it and your cpu are at least PCIe gen 4 … so consult your manual

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I know this was said already, but your performance seems so bad I think there may still be tied to a cpu driver issue of some kind.

Edit : wanted to add that maybe try to get drivers direct from manufactures like Intel or your motherboard manufacturer.

Are you on Windows 11 that’s GA or the beta pipeline? Would you consider going to the Win11 Beta channel to get more recent updates?

I feel like you have an underlying cpu issue. Not hardware though.

Also have you tried turning hyper threading back on?

I’m on Win11 GA. Yeah like you say maybe i must try the beta updates. Maybe because of the 12th gen architecture change it could be the scheduler not being fully polished( i’m no expert but it could be). I have never turned off hyper threading till now.

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With a 12900k ddr4 and 3090 i have ctd each Time i want to fly. Drivers up to date, w11 idem. I don’t use high setting and i must use 30fps or GPU goes to 99%.
I don’t think that was a good idea to update my cpu .

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Woah ok. What error do you get after ctd? Anything related to directx? It would something like dxgi. Also does the fps drop while loading as shown in my video? I guess you do not see cou and gpu clock speeds dropping before the crash or anything, right?

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I checked in event viewer, it s never the same code and nothing related to DirectX

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Try letting your GPU loose, 99 or 100% use and high settings is what it’s made for. The CTDs are probably unrelated I feel, possibly a mod that needs updating (and that includes Vatsim, Navigraph and Co). Capture 1 is also a big issue but there is a fix.

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